In recent years, digitalization of bound media, such as books and magazines, has been demanded. Methods of digitalizing bound media include: a method of reading an image of each sheet by use of a normal image reading apparatus; and a method of reading images of a bound medium by turning over pages of the bound medium without unbinding the bound medium. For the latter case, an image reading apparatus for bound media has been proposed, which automatically turns over pages of a bound medium and reads images of the bound medium by use of an imaging unit. Conventional image reading apparatuses for bound media include: an apparatus with an imaging unit and a turning unit that turns over pages of a bound medium, the imaging unit and turning unit provided separately (for example, see the specification of U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0027547); and an apparatus with an imaging unit and a turning unit, which are provided integrally (for example, see Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. H06-253108 and Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. H05-155181).
When a turning unit turns over pages of a bound medium by sandwiching, from both sides, a turned medium to be turned over, before the turning operation by the turning unit, the turned medium of the bound medium is lifted up from the bound medium. Therefore, until the turned medium has been lifted up from the bound medium, the turning unit waits at a position not overlapping the bound medium as viewed in a vertical direction. Accordingly, there has been a problem that the installation space for the image reading apparatus for bound media becomes large with respect to the bound medium.
The present disclosure has been made in view of the above, and an object thereof is to propose an image reading apparatus for bound media, which enables its installation space to be reduced.